Looking For Help Striper Fishing The End Of May Early June

[brosborough]

I thought I'd start up a thread which I can come back to in a few months. Maybe find some guys who are far better at this than I am and wouldn't mind teaching me some things.

For the past couple years I take off work for a few days and haul my camper up to Beaver lake. Then turn around and go get my boat. Pretty much an all day event to get everything up there and set up. I try and guess a good week in advance so I can actually reserve a spot. Around the end of May, into maybe a week of June the striper and hybrid surface. I guess the shad are spawning or maybe everything coming out of the rivers they get it all stirred up and you can find them breaking. My boat is not set up for down rigging so really the only time I get to do this is when they break. Plus is has to be the most exciting time to catch them in my opinion.

So for the most part, I pick a point, point 5, point 6, and then just sit and wait. Once in a while I get lucky and they are there. More often than not I'm pretty sure they are not where I am. I'll go back to camp and chat with some of the locals but they are pretty tight lipped. Never understood that but oh well. Any time I manage to find them I'll always share with guys who are where I usually am, not catching anything.

I've checked guide boards but I'm pretty sure they send you to the exact opposit of where they are. Took some advice last year from one, I was the only guy there. Not a single boat within a mile of me. Oh well.

So I thought maybe this board might have some people who chase these fish around at this time of year. Just guys like me out fishing, not making a living from it. Gather up a few contacts. And we could all touch base come May and have some fun.

If any of you would like, you can leave a message here or pm me if you like. I'd like to maybe have a better year this time out but need some help from you pros if you wouldn't mind. Last year I managed to take one 15 lb striper with my little girl. Was the only fish we lucked into that who week. It was great and I know you can't catch them all the time but seems like everyone always does a lot better than me and they never share much information. Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part but it never hurts to ask.

Brian

[zarraspook]

bros... I can empathize with your problem....

Until three years ago, when I retired, I had to pick my two weeks vacation in January and trying to guess when the top water bite would the best was like throwing a dart at the calendar..

I tried to get down the the first part of May, for the weather was good most of the time, the summer crowd wasn't there yet, and it was a pretty time of year..

About every third year, we would hit it good ( top water action 3 of 4 days ) and the other times we would only see one or two topwater boils all week, and they were not with in casting distance !!

I have a "HOT SPOTS" map and it is so marked up that it is hard to see the lake ; with places that I thought would be THE SPOT to be...

I don't have an answer for you but,

What we do now is stop and get some brood minnows on the way in; go out early and late in the day; troll 4 lines - 1 @ 5-6 feet, 1@ 10-12 feet, 1@ 15-16 feet ;1@ 20-22 feet and keep a spook and a spoon tied on a couple of casting rods for when they do break the surface...

By reading this board ( DAILY ) you will get a good idea of what part of the lake is most active....

and by reading the past post on this board ( for the time of year you will be there ) you will gain great in-site in to what was happening during that time of year...

Sorry I took so long to say " I DON'T HAVE A CLUE" but, hopefully I have give you some ideas to get you started....

[rps]

brosborough:

Welcome to the board!

You are in luck. A very good guy, "Fin and Feathers," shares his knowledge of Beaver in explicit detail.

Your first step: search the archived posts for him and check the posts from the time frame you are considering.,

Your second step: PM Scott (his name) with a request he share basic information for the time frame you must choose. He will give you more than basic.

Third step: put every word in the bank.

[Stump bumper]

IMO the best Time for stripers is now until the water gets over 50 degrees when the stripers are in the south end of the lake and running shallow. It is impossible to predict a good week of weather for March but I would head down for a weekend and try south of Hwy 12 bridge any weekend next month.

[Feathers and Fins]

End of May first of June

Rocky Branch would be my first stop, fish from the back ramp out to the tip of the last point on your west shore try from 15fow to 30fow.

Second Stop Point 5 on the South shore up to point 6. Same depth range.

Last option is Point 4 there is a hump on the SE shore they like to hold on.

If you are on the water before dawn fish shallow from 10fow to 15fow max more stripers are in shallow than people think. I typically limit out fast and watch the guides sitting in deep water not catching a thing.

Baits you need Live bait its an unfortunate truth of Beaver lake that time of year.

[brosborough]

IMO the best Time for stripers is now until the water gets over 50 degrees when the stripers are in the south end of the lake and running shallow. It is impossible to predict a good week of weather for March but I would head down for a weekend and try south of Hwy 12 bridge any weekend next month.

I've never heard anyone say this before. Are they hitting top water or is this still rigging with live bait and boards?

[brosborough]

Thanks guys. I will start searching out the stuff mentioned above and thanks for some names to check in with.

[Stump bumper]

I've never heard anyone say this before. Are they hitting top water or is this still rigging with live bait and boards?

Live bait and boards do work good when they are in the south end but so do jerk baits and top water. There is nothing like getting those big swirls up in 3 feet of water and throwing a jerk bait at them.During early season bass tournaments it is not unusual to catch more stripers than blacks, especially when you have a $20 jerk bait on 8lb test...lol Early morning and late afternoon pencil poppers are really great when the shad move to the back of coves.

Getting on top of feeding fish in 20-30 feet and spoon feeding them can make a great day also, but the difference in mid lake early year fishing is you are chasing fish in 25-35 feet of water not 100-150 feet of water. Seems they would be easier to catch when the concentrate in the North end but I find they are much easier to catch when they run out of the river heading north.

Right now they are filling up on dead shad in all the coves but they will run out of those as soon as the water temps get around 50 degrees.

Don't forget your A-rig

[Feathers and Fins]

I've never heard anyone say this before. Are they hitting top water or is this still rigging with live bait and boards?

Not hitting topwater right no, they are running 12 to 20fow hitting trolled flicker shad at 2.5mph and live bait drifted over them. Smaller ones are hitting a white spoon with a vengeance. Until we get some stable weather they will be hard to pattern and these fronts I fear are pushing the spawning run back each time one comes through. Looking at the ten day we are in for a few more hard freeze's and some snow it looks like. That should put them back again.

March will be interesting especially if we have more shad die-offs and the stripers keep eating the freebies. On the other hand if we get Heavy rains and warm temps it could blow up from 412 bridge to hwy12 bridge. This years weather is making them very hard to predict.